Top 10 World’s Richest People 2008
April 20, 2008
Who’s the richest person in the world? If you answered Bill Gates, then you’re still stuck in the past.
According to Forbes Magazine’s The World’s Billionaires List 2008, the World’s Richest Man is magnanimous investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. His fortune is an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from last year.
(See also 2008 Forbes list of Richest Filipinos and 2007 Richest Filipinos list
The world’s second-richest man is Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú, with an estimated net worth of $60 billion.
Gates is “just” third, with estimated net worth of $58 billion. He would have been richer than or perhaps as rich as Buffett had Microsoft not made an unsolicited Yahoo! bid in early February. After the takeover bid announcement, Microsoft shares fell 15% until February 11, the date Forbes completed the list.
Here’s the World’s 10 Richest People. Complete list from Forbes here.
#1. Warren Buffett
Age: 77
Fortune: self made
Source: Berkshire Hathaway
Net Worth: $62.0 bil
Country Of Citizenship: United States
Industry: Investments
Marital Status: widowed, remarried, 3 children
Warren Buffet soared past friend and bridge partner Bill Gates as shares of Berkshire Hathaway climbed 25% since the middle of last July. Son of Nebraska politician delivered newspapers as a boy. Filed first tax return at age 13, claiming $35 deduction for bicycle. Studied under value investing guru Benjamin Graham at Columbia. Took over textile firm Berkshire Hathaway 1965. Today holding company invested in insurance (Geico, General Re), jewelry (Borsheim’s), utilities (MidAmerican Energy), food (Dairy Queen, See’s Candies). Also has noncontrolling stakes in Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo. Insurance operations flourished in 2007. Had long promised to give away his fortune posthumously. Irrevocably earmarked the majority of his Berkshire shares to charity in 2006, mostly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gift was valued at $31 billion on day of announcement; donation will far exceed that sum so long as Berkshire shares continue to rise.
#2. Carlos Slim Helu & family
Age: 68
Fortune: self made
Source: telecom
Net Worth: $60.0 bil
Country of Citizenship: Mexico
Industry: Communications
Marital Status: widowed, 6 children
Second-richest man in the world this year, thanks to strong Mexican equities market and the performance of his wireless telephone company, America Movil. The son of a Lebanese immigrant, Slim made his first fortune in 1990 when he bought fixed line operator Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) in a privatization. In December, America Movil struck a deal with Yahoo to provide mobile Web services to 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. In recent years, he has donated close to $7 billion worth of cash and stock to fund education and health projects, and to the revitalization of Mexico City’s downtown historical district.
#3. William Gates III
Age: 52
Fortune: self made
Source: Microsoft
Net Worth: $58.0 bil
Country of Citizenship: United States
Industry: Software
Marital Status: married, 3 children
Harvard dropout and Microsoft visionary is no longer the world’s richest man. Blame Yahoo: Microsoft shares have fallen 15% since the company boldly attempted to merge with the search engine giant to better fight Google for Internet dominance. Gates is preparing to give up day-to-day involvement in the company he co-founded 33 years ago to spend more time focused on his philanthropic endeavors. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has $38.7 billion in assets, donates to causes aimed at bringing financial tools to the poor, speeding up the development of vaccines (for AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis), bettering America’s lagging high schools. Sells 20 million Microsoft shares every quarter, proceeds going to private investment vehicle Cascade; more than half of net worth now outside of Microsoft.
#4. Lakshmi Mittal
Age: 57
Fortune: inherited and growing
Source: steel
Net Worth: $45.0 bil
Country of Citizenship: India
Industry: Manufacturing
Marital Status: married, 2 children
Head of world’s largest steelmaker, $105 billion (sales) ArcelorMittal, which accounts for 10% of all crude steel production. Currently the company’s largest shareholder with 44% stake. Longtime resident of London.
#5. Mukesh Ambani
Age: 50
Fortune: inherited and growing
Source: petrochemicals
Net Worth: $43.0 bil
Country of Citizenship: India
Industry: Manufacturing
Marital Status: married, 3 children
Asia’s richest resident heads petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries, India’s most valuable company by market cap.
#6. Anil Ambani
Age: 48
Fortune: inherited
Source: diversified
Net Worth: $42.0 bil
Country of Citizenship: India
Industry: Diversified
Marital Status: married, 2 children
Currently closing the gap with estranged brother, Mukesh, who ranks one spot ahead of him. He recently raised $3 billion from the highly anticipated initial offering of his Reliance Power, the biggest in India’s history.
#7. Ingvar Kamprad & family
Age: 81
Fortune: self made
Source: Ikea
Net Worth: $31.0 bil
Country of Citizenship: Sweden
Industry: Retailing
Marital Status: married, 4 children
Owns furniture retailer Ikea, with stores in 40 countries around the world.
#8. KP Singh
Age: 76
Fortune: inherited and growing
Source: real estate
Net Worth: $30.0 bil
Country of Citizenship: India
Industry: Real Estate
Marital Status: married, 3 children
Now the world’s richest real estate baron after listing his real estate development company DLF in 2007 which helped triple his fortune to $30 billion in 2008, up from $10 billion.
#9 Oleg Deripaska
Age: 40
Fortune: self made
Source: Russian Aluminum
Net Worth: $28.0 bil
Country of Citizenship: Russia
Industry: Diversified
Marital Status: married, 2 children
His holding company, Basic Element, now owns Russian Aluminum (United Company Rusal), automobile manufacturer GAZ, aircraft manufacturer Aviacor and insurance company Ingosstrakh.
#10. Karl Albrecht
Age: 88
Fortune: self made
Source: Aldi
Net Worth: $27.0 bil
Country of Citizenship: Germany
Industry: Retailing
Marital Status: married, 2 children
Germany’s richest man, owner of discount supermarket giant Aldi which now has more than 8,000 stores and $67 billion in sales.
Mai 14th, 2009 at %H:%M
Well for me people living a life of luxury like them are not to be envied but to be pitied.For their main concern is to spend their money extravagantly and seek pleasure-whether it is permissible or not.In fact money cant buy everything, it cannot buy real happiness.It sucks doesnt it? So why quench yourself with hardwork when it won’t grant you real happiness?I mean why not be contented with what the Mighty God had decreed you? Yeah we need money in order to live but that doesn’t mean we will live for money!GOD!just bare in mind that if we deviate from the path of our Mighty Creator we will never find real happiness!!!!
Juni 21st, 2009 at %H:%M
Obviously, you do not have money….money does not make the issues in your life better nor worse, but having money certainly helps you not worry about day to day stresses….the top 3 richest people worked very hard for their money and they should not be envied nor pitied, they should be applauded….I’ve not had money and saw my family fight all the time about it while I was growing up…now I have money and though things are not perfect it is better then not having money…..you can have real happiness whether you have money or not….it sounds as if you not having money is giving you an excuse for not working hard…..and you can certainly love our mighty creator with or without money….so sorry you sound so sad and envious….
Juni 23rd, 2009 at %H:%M
well, its not important if your the # 1,2,3,4,5…. richest man on earth….. for me, as long as you have enough money for your daily ,simple or extravagant, life as long as you can buy what you want and especially what you need…. its not important if you are earning billions or millions of dollars… what is important is you’ve got enough money….. because money may not be the most important thing on earth but lack of money can be a hindrance achieving the most important thing on earth that could make you happy… :)
Juni 24th, 2009 at %H:%M
Respected Sir,
I am Pastor Praveen Varma from India We are doing social welfare activities from past 10 years now the work is growing and the orphan children to whom we are feeding and the widowed women and old people are suffering a lot for a heap of rice because of the increase in prices and lack of financial resources
Till now we are not working under any institution ours is individual and faith based now we want to affiliate and work under one institution who is able to run this mission
This is the list of activities which we are doing here:
1 We are having 100 orphan children to whom we provide food 2 times a day and we will teach them minimum education
2 We are having 50 widowed women to whom we are providing Shelter in a school shed and teaching them stitching embroidery, pot paintings and such extra curricular activities to provide a life to them
3 Feeding Old aged people by giving them 5kgs rice every month and providing medical camps every month
4 Bringing steer side children and teaching them free minimum education
Sir all these are the activities which we are doing here so Kindly help these children and widowed, old aged people by affiliating our small mission with yours or at least by supporting our program
If any thing in our letter hurts you please excuse us in the name of God as we are asking very openly and fairly because of our need
Thanking you
Pastor Praveen Varma
Juli 20th, 2009 at %H:%M
su2nod n kmi n mr.henry sy jan!!
März 11th, 2010 at %H:%M
What’s the point of so much money. Better to try to do some good in the world than become really rich.